


She paces, I watch

by Syddoc



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-04
Updated: 2015-12-04
Packaged: 2018-05-04 22:09:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5350253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syddoc/pseuds/Syddoc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He'd know that walk anywhere.</p><p>Measured paces, striding an exact distance, her timelord brain making child's play of measuring out the most complex dig.</p><p>The Doctor summons the courage to approach his bespoke psychopath wearing a body neither of them expected...</p><p>He nervously pushes back his hair...</p>
            </blockquote>





	She paces, I watch

He'd know that walk anywhere.

Measured paces, striding an exact distance, her timelord brain could make child's play of measuring out the most complex dig.

It's not the first time he'd seen a walk that made him hope, but it's the first time in a very long time he'd really stopped and looked.

It'd been an eternity since he'd stopped hoping. An eternity and another body. He's no longer sure he has kept his promise to always be the same Doctor - it's been a very dark time for a very long time.

But wonder of wonders, it's her.

His wife.

His bespoke psychopath.

And she's looking right through him.

He remembers - he's never been able to forget "Please, tell me you know who I am."

And his younger self, so full of himself, just asking "Should I?"

Should she know who he is? He can *feel* her with every pore of his being. But to her he doesn't exist, she may have seen all of his faces save this one...

They'd had one particularly maudlin conversation about being on their last regenerations together. He'd told River the truth - he'd used them all up, he was on his last one, too. They could hope, oh how they could hope, that they could do the getting older thing together.

He knew for a timelord that appearance was cosmetic anyhow - and she had much greater control than him... Taking down the age a bit, indeed.

She's moving on now, but she's noticed him and she's wary. That's his River, always alert, always prepared... Best to follow at a safe distance...

But she'd gone to the Library, he'd retreated to his cloud and that should have been the end of that, save for his stubborn magnificent wife.

This was a spoiler she'd kept in that wild hair of hers, buried in that sexy brain behind one of the doors he wasn't to enter.

Did this mean she didn't know? That he doesn't tell her? 

He can see her reaching for a weapon, he's been staring too long, he may be the smartest man in any room but River Song has always been able to leave him off-kilter. Following your bespoke killer needs more skills than the Doctor can manage when his heart is overflowing with joy- but running and embracing her may just be a quick way to his thirteenth self...

In the end he takes his life in his hands

"River!"

She turns slowly, appraising the threat he poses. Oh these eyebrows, hopefully today is not the day they get him killed.

He smiles, not a prompted smile from a card, but a genuine, deep, ear to ear grin. Approaching slowly he tries to find the right words.

"Hello, Dear."


End file.
